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Showing Original Post only (View all)Your Ignorance is not as Good; Or, You Don't Know Fuck-All About Syria [View all]
Let's say you're a super smart person who reads the news all the time, and generally keeps him or herself informed. You're an accountant. Guess what? The person who works the Middle East desk at the State Department knows more than you do. Fucking fact.
OK, not an accountant. A teacher. A southern California independent journalist. A Vermont service worker who reads news and magazines constantly. A Massachusetts freelance writer.
The people who run the Middle East desk at State, at Defense, at Langley know more than you.
It is not "authoritarian" to say so. It is plain fact.
You can't celebrate the Asimov quote published here so broadly, to wit, that anti-intellectualism is "nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge,' while at the same time being an amateur dilettante who thinks YOU know more than the person who works the Syria desk at State. Guess what: you don't. Your ignorance is not just as good as that person's knowledge. Even your endless web "research" isn't. That person has YEARS of formal training. You're a hobbyist, at best. And probably, a fairly recent one. Your ignorance is not as good as that person's knowledge.
I should note in closing that I am strongly opposed to intervention in Syria, full stop. But I will never pretend that I know more than people who do this sort of thing for a living simply because I am passionate, and have read a few articles.